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'<^Bra'S^

ON

'■^9t

PREHISTOEIC TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

IN CONNECTION WITH

SUN AND SERPENT WORSHIP.

BY

JOHN S. PHBNl^],

LL.D. F.S.A. F.G.S. F.R.G.S. F.R.I.B.A. F.R.H.S. F.S.S.

Fellow of the Royal Historical and Archajolofjical Association of Ireland; Life Member of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science ; Member of the Council of the Society
for Promoting Social Science; Member of the Council of the British Archteolopfical
Association; Life Member and Member of the Council of the Geologists' Associa-
tion; Member of the Council of the Society for Promotion of the Fine Arts ;
Member of the Council of the Royal Historical Society ; Life Member
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain; Life Member of the
Corooration of the Royal Literary Fund; Member of the
Anthropological Institutes of Great Britain, Ireland,
and Now York ; of the Philosophical Society of
Great Britain; of the Palwontographical
and Ray Societies, and of the Royal
ArcKitectural Museum Society,
and the Society of Biblical
Archaeology.

JiKPRIXTED FROM THE JOUliXAL OF THE VICTORIA IXSTITUTF.

LONDON:
ROBERT HARDWICKE, 192, PICCADILLY.

MDOCCtXXV.

Si.
438

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The bead of Oiann above the chest of Typhon, and beneath the Bun, which
a supported on a, pyramid of emblems of fire and water. From the temple
at Tentf ris, E^pt.

The god NilDB,#rith the 80i
tbe Nile flowing into the Ocean.
TentyriE.

Au eariv Ooddeotal b
enoloBod <Miii, n

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4vnn ^

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VI . ON

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PEEHISTOEIC TEADITIONS AND CUSTOMS

IN CONNECTION WITH

SUN AND SERPENT WORSHIP.

IN approaching the subject indicated in the title of this paper,
I propose to do so in the first instance by a slight sketch
of natural and first impressions, for the purpose of weighing
the influence they may have exercised on the peculiar worship
under consideration.

2. Over the wide world are evidences of what, jorima/ade, seems
so strange and repulsive a custom, that those who hear of it for
the first time may be excused expressions of incredulity and
disgust ; yet, although there is a popular adage that " vice has
only to be seen to be abhorredj^' experience proves to us that it
depends very much upon the garb in which we see it, what
amount of abhorrence, if any, will be accorded. So we have
examples of those in whom disgust would most probably show
itself prominently towards the features of that to which I
allude, being drawn, either from ignorance of danger or by a
species of fascination, to display towards its symbol at least,
admiration rather than disgust, and fondness rather than
repulsion. I refer to the almost universal prevalence of serpent-
worship in ancient times, the extant remains of which are still
to be found on probably all the continents of the earth.

3. The efi^ect upon a person hearing for the first time of the
worship of an idol — an actually fabricated god — is, as a rule,
one of surprise and pity ; but on hearing of the worship of a
serpent, it is one of disgust and abhorrence. These feelings are
very much the result of education, i. e, a knowledge of the
dangerous properties of serpents, as it is shown from several
recorded instances of children petting snakes ^k^'^ V^^ ^%^^-

vered,^ and of the fondness and reverence exhibited by the
priestesses of Pythons, to the good offices of which deities they
assumed they were entitled, that, in the absence of a know-
ledge of danger, fear and repulsion are not necessarily felt. It
becomes a question, then, at the outset, whether or not a great
part of the worship devoted to serpents has arisen directly
from fear of their destructive powers; and this is a feature
we cannot altogether discard.

4. But this which might appear, prima facie, as a sufficient
cause, must be very much modified when we look a little more
closely into the matter. Thus we find in Egypt a good and a
bad serpent, — the goddess Banno (fig. 35), the god Apophis (fig.
36), — the one considered worthy of adoration, the other styled
"the great enemy of the human race,^'t which was to be opposed
or else propitiated. The latter is gravely reported to have been
once captured and brought to Alexandria in triumph; J and the
question naturally arises, How did the other serpent become
invested with good attributes ?

5. I can not only easily imagine, but it seems impossible to
conclude otherwise, that man, simply as man, by which I do
not mean a creature in a condition of development from the
lower animals, but a wanderer from the home or original hive ;
a voluntary apostate, seeking forgetfulness of the past in new
scenes and distant localities, and dreading his god, from whom,

as well as his own race, he was fleeing in dismay; having, /
moreover, a passion implanted in his breast — that of worship —
which neither time nor distance could obliterate ; that man, as
such, and in such condition, and having still before him the
recollection of attributes recognized by others as those belonging
to his late god, but which he refused to acknowledge, and which
combined grandeur, beneficence, and creative power, must perforce
have elected to worship the only representative he could find
possessed of any such qualities ; namely. Nature, through which,
in short, these very powers of his ofi^ended god had so far been
visibly manifested, and that the first direction of his new worship
would be terrestrial ; § the second, which he would willingly have
shunned, but neither dared nor could dispense with, cele^ial.
At such a period of his experience, — and I am assuming the
earliest, the Ocean would have presented a dreary and unknown

* A curious illustration of fondness for serpents exists at Chelsea at the
present time, which has led to alarm in the neighbourhood.

t Samuel Sharpens Hist, of Egypt, vol. i. p. 58.

t Diodorus Siculus.

§ So strong was this feeling, that Berosus described Xisuthrus, i.e. Noah,
on coming out of the ark after the Flood, as first paying his adoration to the
Marih, and then sacrificing to the gods. (Dr. George Smith.)

\

waste, an eternity of waters, subject to as violent commotions
from storm and tempest as his own troubled mind, and again
relapsing into a state of calm and purity even more harrowing, ^
by recollection, to the distracted and restless wanderer.

6. Into that Ocean however went, continuously, as it appeared,
the only objects that would now seem to him of interest, —
his new ^gods ; the sun, followed by his constant satellites ;
and the refresher and revivifier of his other god, — the earth —
indeed a feature of it — the river. This is strongly borne
out by Egyptian representation. The frontispiece depicts a
very remarkable hieroglyph in the portico at Tentyris; the
sun supported on a pyramid composed of the symbols of fire
and water, with the head of Osiris in front, placed over the cist
or chest in which Typhon imprisoned him. The characteristics
of Osiris are shown in his negro lips and in the horns of tlie
bull Apis, From the details the meaning of the figure is
apparent; all the symbols of fire are incomplete, the apices
being absent Zi ; all those of water, on the contrary, are
perfect V I ^^^ pyramid is not a true one, but elongates to
the left, or west ; the head of Osiris is placed studiedly in the
western elongation, i,e, towards the left or west ; the rays slant ;
and on the left of the cist is an extra enclosure.* It is clear
that this refers to the sun setting in the ocean, water being
shown by the perfect symbol, and fire by the deficient one.
Moreover, the whole is canopied by a vast female figure, whose
garments covered with water-lines clearly represent the Ocean,
not the Mediterranean towards the north, but the vast ocean
supposed by the ancients to surround the world, as we. are told
by Herodotus; and which ideal surrounding is completed in
the hieroglyph in question, by an equally vast oceanic figure
opposite to the above, the hands and feet of both meeting each
other. Osiris wearing the horns of Apis in this case strengthens
the simile, as Apis, Hepi, or Hapi signifies in Egyptian to
conceal.^ Beneath the above I have placed a hieroglyph from
the same temple, representing the god Nilus holding the

*{ sources of the Nile, which, issuing in serpentine forms from his
hands, and being lost in the ocean, fulfil the remainder of the
metaphor I have chosen.

7. The people we call Egyptians probably reached Egypt

* The interior of this chest, with its western chamber, corresponds so
exactly with one of the old Irish dwellings that it almost seems to indicate
the sun going towards the land of a people having like habitations and
living westward. A drawing of one is placed at the foot of the chest under
description.

t Bunsen, vol. i., Vocabulary, page 462.

6

from Asia Minor^ and their first associations would in that case
familiarize them with the idea of the sun setting in the Western
Ocean. From their geographical position, the persons we call
Orientals (by which I mean those dwelling at the eastern end
of the Mediterranean), would observe the sun going into the
waters at night, but not rising from them in the morning, as
we islanders do. The sun-worshippers it would seem, as I have
pointed out in a paper in the British Archceological Journal for
March, 1873, were in the habit of worshipping the sun
when he appeared on the tops of the mountains, I do not think
the people, as a rule, ascended, but only the priest, who was
seen enveloped in his glory. Indeed, it is found that the
inscription on the Moabite stone contains an expression l^pi,
(daybreak)* not known in the Hebrew writings, the nearest
approach to which is, "like xnorning spread upon the
mountains,'* described by the same writer as a time of dark-
ness ; i. e. idolatry — their idolatry being sun-worship.f Hence
such a person as I have assumed would see a similarity in this
common act of the sun and the river, the two agents through
whose means the earth was fertilized.

8. The river, then, would become in particular an object of
veneration. Now, with regard to Egypt, where the sun and
serpent were both worshipped, let us take an idea from the
description of a late popular writer as to the appearance of the
Nile (I prefer such an opinion to that of an antiquary or man
of science, or any person having an idea to clothe). He
describes the view from a lofty summit thus : " A vast level
panorama, bounded by the chains of the Arabian and Libyan
hills, lay spread before us, diversified with every shade of
green, and watered by the Nile; creeping, like a silvery
SERPENT, through the green savannahs.*' X That which meets
the eye of the traveller now, so far as nature is concerned, met
it then, and, in the eyes of the devotee, the river was a giant
god, of which the serpent was but a symbol. Moreover, while
it has been frequently suggested that the annual renewal of the \
serpent's skin would be construed by the observers of nature
into a renewal of life, and by inference into the property of
immortality, it has never, I think, been pointed out that this

* W. P. Walsh, quoting Professor Davidson.

t Joel ii. 2.

t Warburton, The Crescent and the Gross, It is remarkable that the
Hebrew word for green vegetation, pin (Cant. i. 15) is almost identical with
the name of the goddess Ranno, goddess of harvest, &c. — See p. 2. (W. R.
Cooper.)

■ (

Fig. 2._S«rp<!iit imd Mound, Ohio,

Fig. Sa, From Niw Onmge,

8

peculiarity would cause the serpent to be tenfold more sacred
in Egypt than elsewhere, as it would identify it with the
frenewal of the very life of Egypt itself in the annual revivifica-
tion by the Nile, which, casting its heavy slough of mud, gave
new earth and new water to its worshippers. It was the
sacredness of the Nile that made sacred every animal and
nlant that lived in or emerged from it.

9. There is something very curious also in this symbol as used
for the Nile. I admit the evidences are startlingly remote, but
that makes it the more curious. In Scotland,^ Ireland, and
America is a serpent symbol, as shown on my diagrams
(figs. 1, 2, compare these with fig. 21), which in each case has a
triangular head or mouth, exactly corresponding to the delta of
the Nile; and in the case of the great American serpent mound
in Ohio, the effigy appears to be presiding over three mouths of
rivers. This, however, I merely mention incidentally, though
the details are so exact that it gives evidence of a common
symbolism; the orb, a characteristic feature in the Egyptian
representations, being also in each case found with this delta-
mouthed serpent form. It is very remarkable that the honey
cakes carried in golden baskets by noble virgins for the purpose
of an ofi^ering to, and at the same time the food for, deified
serpents, were ornamented with the sacred Omphalos ; that is,
a boss, on which was described a spiral line, which some think
was itself a representation of a serpent (figs. 3, 3a). A
glance at the diagrams from Dowth, and that marked with the
letter I, will show at once that it would hardly, have been
possible to design the Omphalos and the serpent more clearly ;
and the ceremonies of the Omphalos can be distinctly traced to
Egypt.

10. To return to the subject. We .have traced the supposed
wanderer to his distant retreat, and followed his institution of
new gods, the sun and the serpent; for his first god — the
earth — would soon sink into insignificance in comparison with
the powers that made the earth fertile, and as his knowledge of
them increased.

11 . Man, new from intercourse with the Supreme, was not yet
sunk to the level of being satisfied with a passive deity ; such,
and grossly sensual divinities, were reserved for still greater
degradation, or atheistical distance. We have an example
in the case of the Greeks, who, while the philosophers and
higher classes worshipped the gods of government, war, speed,
music, poetry, sculpture, love, and wisdom, appropriated to

'•^ The first I assume from Dr. James Fergusson.

9

the degraded populace the vulgar Pan and the drunken
Bacchus.

12. The grandest features of the earth, especially where con-
nected with activity, still remained objects of reverence. In my
inaugural address in 1870, on the opening for philosophical pur-
poses, under the presidency of the Earl of Glasgow, of Sir Peter
Coats's splendid gift to the town of Paisley, the Free Museum
and Library, I pointed out that mountain-worship was evidently
a feature in ancient religion, and one which had received too
little attention. I cannot fail to recognize the ever-burning
fires on the summits of the pyramidal temple in Mexico, and
I have no doubt originally on the pyramids of Egypt, as being
suggested to the worshippers by their contemplation of the
terrible and sublime in the peaks of burning mountains ; I
further pointed out on that occasion my belief that the
Egyptians had erected the pyramids to supply the place of
mountains near their abodes, on the sandy plains of Memphis,
as proper spots for worship. My address was extensively
circulated at the time, and I now find the same remark in a
work lately published by the Rev. Mr, Zincke, on Egypt,* and
highly eulogized by the Spectator's reviewer, who quotes Mr.
Zincke as follows : ^^ We may be absolutely certain that had
they (the Egyptians) lived in an alpine country, though they
might have commanded the requisite materials on easier terms,
they would never have built the pyramids, for then an Egyptian
pyramid would have been a prgmy monument by the side of
Nature's pyramids ; but, built as they were in Egypt, and seen
from the neighbourhod of Memphis and Heliopolis, they were
veritable mountains J' I have not the least intention of
questioning the perfect originality of Mr. Zincke's idea, but I
must claim the first publication of it.

13. I look upon it as one of those coincidences arising from any
science or study having arrived at a point which must produce
new ideas and results, and which we find, as in the case of the
electric telegraph, in that of the late invention of instruments
to observe the solar photosphere, and also in the labours of
Leverrier and Adams, led workers, having no previous commu-
nication, to very similar opinions and results.

14. But how are we to incorporate the idea of an evil serpent
power with a symbol chosen to represent the beneficent river ?
Are we to suppose that there was simply a recognition of the
actual serpent as an object of dread ? Then why choose it at all
as an emblem of good ? There must be something more in this.

* Egypt of the Fharaohs and of the Kidive, by F. Barham Zincke.
Smith, Elder, & Co.

10

15. Let us look a little closer at some of the attributes of
these gods. The magi,* we read, authorized the use of fire, and
water as the only emblems of their gods. As the powers repre-
sented by the sun, and the serpent-river had to act in unison, if
I may so express it, or cease to be efficient, we soon find the sun
and serpent combined, and recognized by some worshippers as
one and the same ; the sun representing the head of the serpent
which entwined the world*, as symbolized by the circle in which
the serpent holds his tail in his mouth (fig. 4) . Here, then, we
! find an emblem which embodies also the idea of the Greek
, Phoebus, or the " far-shooting Apollo ^' — the sun — who shot to
(death the Python, or serpent, or, in other words, destroyed its
identity by amalgamating it with his own. An emblem, more-
over, seen in the Assyrian representation of Asshur (fig. 5),
being a god with extended wings, bow in handy in front of a
circle, or wheel. If any ambiguity appears, as to the wheel
representing the sun in the emblem of Asshur, I may point
out that such emblems often concealed the exact intention,
as on the reverse of a Gnostic gem, where, on the obverse,
we have the sacred serpent with the solar halo (fig. 6),
which would also be understood by the initiated under the
sections of triple folds shown on the reverse (fig. 7), while the
uninitiated could make nothing of it beyond three folds on a
staff or bar. We see this enigma explained beyond question in
the Phoenician serpent and tree (fig. 8). And we have in the
emblem of Mercury, who was, of course, the messenger of both
good and evil, the two serpents, and the staff or tree in the
caduceus (fig. 9). In another Assyrian representation f of a
deity, we find the winged orb, formed by a serpent circle, which
also forms the body of the god, who, instead of the bow, holds
a smaller serpent circle in his hand, probably a symbol of the
moon (fig. 10). This deity is supported on a pedestal composed
of several rings, three being together and one separate ; all
of which are covered with the mystic emblems of fire and
water, viz. the upright and inverted triangles. J In a Bhuddist
emblem, we find a serpent intervening between the points of
these tHangles (fig. 11) ; while, on the Babylonish monuments,
the serpent figures in chief with the sun, moon, and stars above
him. American Indians as late as 1741 tattooed a serpent on
the chest, and a star on the left breast, and had sun and serpent
emblems (fig. 12). The object in the hand of the Indian (from an

* Diogenes Laertius ; Clemens Alexandrinus. f Bryant.

t The immense urn exhumed by me on the Marquis of Lothian's estate
in Koxburghshire, the result of a fragment found upon the surface, is unmis-
takably marked with these emblems, and is, 1 beHeve, an unique example.
An illustration is in the Graphicy February 23nd, 1873.

12

illustration by Deane) cannot but recall the remarkable passage
in the Acts (ch. vii. v. 43) : " Ye took up the tabernacle of
Moloch and the star of your god Remphan^ figures which ye
made to worship them^ and I will carry you away beyond
Babylon.^^ In other words, you shall be captives in the land
whose idols you have chosen. It is remarkable that in the
Arthurian order of the Garter the cross in the centre of the
circle agrees with that of Asshur, and the rays assimilate in
each case ; while, if we go further east, the order of the Golden
Fleece has ihQ exact form of that in the wheel of Asshur (fig. 13,
and supra, fig. 5), which latter the Assyrian sculptor has
studiedly sacrificed drawing to delineate, showing that the form
had a meaning ; and these early orders it must be borne in
mind were all mystical, and even mythological. The examples
will be seen in diagram Q.

16. Although the sun, the serpent, and the sun-serpent
were all worshipped before the Greeks went to Egypt, it
is not improbable, as the Greeks worshipped Apollo, and
the Egyptians the serpent, that the fable of Apollo de-
stroying the serpent may also have received fresh force
from the ultimate supremacy of the Greeks over the Egyp-
tians, though apart from nature-worship, it probably arose as
symbolical of the Greek and Trojan warfare. Once established,
from whatever origin, the idea would of course receive accretions.

17. But the far-darting Apollo, though presiding over the
Muses, was apt to send darts which had a baneful influence ;
and here, also, we find opposite attributes ; ihey could hardly
both be innate, and therefore we must look for an explanation
in his amalgamation with the serpent. But are we then to
suppose the good and bad serpent powers were both embodied
in him ? If not, whence is the bad ?

18. Let us look further. In the figures 14, 15, 16,
the Egyptian serpent, known as the Urajus, is shown in
positions with the orb, or ^un, so often surmounting its
head, to say nothing of its other positions, such as issuing
out of the sun, &c. (fig. 16a), that the sun for the serpent^s
head is no longer a matter of conjecture ; while in the repre-
sentation in figure 17, we see the Phoenician serpent deity
with its head surrounded with a nimbus, or halo, as of the
sun itself, curiously enough reproduced as one of the sup-
porters to the arms of the Highland clan Donnachie. But
the arrows of the " far-shooting Apollo '' brought him many
a victim; and the Phoenicians sacrificed human victims to
their deities : we find, then, a good and an evil influence repre-
sented here also, for that they considered their deities had good
attributes we cannot doubt.

o

PiK-ie. Jig. ISa.

14

19. Let us go further afield. On the west coast of Africa is the
kingdom of Whidah, where the serpent was, till recently, wor-
shipped by two different people or tribes ; but although violent
antagonism existed as to the qualities of their deity, or the
mode of worshipping him, they both agreed in this, that a
human sacrifice was the most acceptable offering to their serpent
deity ; and we know, from the recent slaughtering by Dahomey,
that the custom of man shedding man's blood was, may I say,
naturalized in that district.* Astheyalso attributed benign powers
to their god, the mixture of good and evil is again apparent. The
name of the deity here is Obion, and indicates the sun, " On,''
and the serpent, " Ob/'f In Mexico we find, not only extensive
evidences of serpent- worship, but emblems assimilating to the
Egyptian; not only are there vast pyramids, shorn of their
apices, as in Egypt (figs. 18, 18), but the ringed serpent
is even more explanatory than that already mentioned. It is
formed by two entwined serpents, the heads of which meet
face to face. One is represented as old and bearded, the
other as young and vigorous, clearly indicating the new day
about to drive away the old night. These are represented
in figure 19, and are in position for comparison with
the simple ring formed by the serpent biting his own tail
(fig. 4, supra). The Mexican emblems are placed vertically,
and in such a position that the new day, or new year it may be,
represented by the more youthful serpent, is shown as being
not yet quite risen, the head of the old serpent being upper-
most. Fig, 19a is Egyptian, and shows the same idea of
duality.

20. Again, amongst the animal-shaped mounds of America, we
find one device, somewhat rarely, it is true, but which is very
remarkable in form, indeed unmistakable ; it is figured in the
Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, and is a distinct
representation of the winged sphere of Egypt, which is likewise
almost identical with that of Asshur, previously mentioned, as
found in the Assyrian sculptures, which are all shown in
the diagrams (figs. 20 a, b, c) ; but beyond this is the fact of
unmistakable enormous serpent similitudes found in America,
several of which are in my illustrations. (Pig. 21; compare with
figs. 1, 2, and 3, supra,)

* In a communication just made (January, 1875) to the Geographical
Society, the writer, at the supposed source of the Nile, states that each time
he visited the king several persons were decapitated as a mark of respect to
him, the visitor.

t See the author's paper read before the British Association, at Brighton,
in 1872, and contained in the official report of the Association, viz., " On
'^me jEFJdences of a Common Migration from the East."

Hgs. 38. Pyramids, Misassippi, Amerioa.

Figs. 18, Pyramids of Ghiie, Efc-jpt. (Denun.)

16

21. The mound-builders^ whoever they were, can be almost
certainly traced from the city of Mexico to the Gulf, and thence
northwards up the Mississippi ; and the mounds, as well as the
ancient ruins, exhibit the serpent prominently: hence their
worship of the serpent appears conclusive; and we find, moreover,
that they were sun-worshippers, or, rather, Sabian worshippers
also, as disks, representing the sun and moon, have been
excavated from the mounds, and even a figure representing an
astronomical observer (fig. 22) from one of their ruins. Sun-
worship in Canaan was symbolized in the same way, — the habit
had been contracted by the Hebrews, who used in this wor-
ship " sun images,*^ which Asa is recorded to have taken away
(2 Chron. xiv. 5).

22. Here then also we have identically the same worship, and
with it we find the same addiction to human sacrifice ; moreover,
the god or gods must have been considered beneficent, as the
victim, according to Prescott, went through a state of pre-
paration to fit him for the glorious result of his voluntary
act, and was decked with flowers and external emblems of
felicity, showing a further confirmation of the good and evil
attributes. The human sacrifices in Canaan are fully recorded.

23. In the Hindoo Pantheon we find a curious instance of the
mythical properties of a serpent deity (fig. 23). Crishna, being in
jeopardy on one occasion, caused an immense serpent to appear,
into the mouth of which he, his followers, and his flocks, entered
and took refuge."^ The fable is illustrated in one of the diagrams,
and seems to me to imply voluntary immolation to the serpent
god ; or it may have reference to an erection constructed for
defence, in the form of a serpent deity, — a sanctuary in short, —
as we find in an ancient Mexican book * an account of a temple,
circular in form, and the entrance representing the mouth of a
serpent, opened in *a frightful manner, and extremely terrifying
to those who approached it for the first time. Here in the

[^circular form we have again the ring, the emblem of perfection
uor eternity, combined with a visible representation of cruelty.
Figs. 24 and 24a give examples of similar refuge. The one
represents the god Nilus, surrounded by the protecting in-
fluence of the eternal serpent. The other a mother and child
protected by Chnuphis. On the point of human sacrifice there
is one object of it not perhaps so clearly proved to be universal
as that of the sacrifice itself, yet sufficiently so, by its wide
diff'usion as a custom, to make its universality probable:
namely, that it constitutes a feature entirely of the apostate
class.

* Quoted in J. D. Baldwin's Andeni Amei'icaf p. 28.

Fig. 20b. Egyptian Sculptures. Fig. 20c. American Mounds.

Fig. 22c!. EeTptUn.

Curred Ssrpent Mouod,

Iload-dreea of the god NUiut (Denon

Fig. 22. Ancient Amerioan Aatronomiaal Figure in sllier, taken from » Chulpa in
Bolivia. In one liand a telescope, in the other a mask, probably of the moon,
(From Bolivia and Pei-u. By David Forbea, Esq., F.fi.B,)
Compare the wlu- rays on head with head-dresg of the goA Nilm, from Danon.

20

24. Divination by the death of a victim. This was practised
in Assyria, the king of Babylon being represented by Ezekiel
as divining by looking into the liver. Various authors attribute
the same custom to the Druids of Britain, and something very
similar was practised in Mexico, and by the Boman augurs,
who, it is assumed, also practised this species of aruspicy.
Here, at least, we have evidence of a widely-spread custom in
different continents associated with death by sacrifice.

25. Impressed in my youth with the remarkable emblems on the
Indian temples, I had for many years pursued the study of the
symbols of different religions by travel and personal inspection
in various countries, and finally devoted several consecutive
years to searching the Hebrides, and those remote and secluded
districts in the West Highlands of Scotland, in which I felt
convinced there ought still to be some remains, beyond mere
stone circles and sepulchral tumuli ; and I consider, although
I have prosecuted the search at a great expenditure of
time and cost, I have yet been amply rewarded. The figures
numbered 25 illustrate several of the remarkable monuments
I have discovered, with what appear to me unparalleled results,
giving, I think, a further corroboration to the evidence we have
in favour of the construction, for religious purposes, of serpent
forms and emblems. These diagrams should be compared with
figures numbered 28, on which are representations of the
American mounds.* My investigations in the East, and in
Greece, Italy, and Spain, were made purely for the satisfaction
of my own private desire to know more concerning what
appeared to me an interesting subject, but I never deemed the
matter one likely to become of public interest in these days, till
the valuable work on Serpent Worship by Dr. James Fergusson
showed that I was not a solitary student of such forms of religion.

26. There are, moreover, certain other emblems of a very
peculiar character, some of which are markedly identified with
the religions to which I have referred. The cross was evidently
one of the very oldest emblems among pre-historic men. I have
heard it urged that there is nothing surprising in this, as it is
the simplest form of a sign that might be made alike by
children and the most uncultivated savages, to indicate any
purpose. But it is in the highest positions of veneration, and
not in accidental or inferior positions, that it appears. It is

* As illustrations of all the examples on the diagrams cannot be given,
the reader is referred to Good Words and the Illustrated London News for
figures of these mounds, of the respective dates of March, 1872, and
26th October, 1872 ; the first being by Miss C. F. Gordon Gumming. Also
to a work by the author. Results of a Becent Investigation into Ancient
Monuments and Belies.

Figs. 25. EgjpUan Crosses.

22

one of the most frequent emblems in the temple and tomb
sculptures of Egypt (figs. 25, twelve examples) ; it is found in
India (fig. 26) ; is represented on coins of Phocis, encircled in a
laurel crown (fig. 27), with, on the obverse, a trinity of bulls'
heads united at the mouths ; is one of the most frequent as well
as of the most carefully constructed designs of the American
mound-builders (figs. 28, 28, 28) ; is beautifully and elaborately
carved in the building, named from this fact "La Cruz,'' in the
ruined city of Palenque, in Mexico, which bears evidence of an-
tiquity long prior to the Aztec supremacy ; is known under the
form of the letter taic (T) as a mark or brand supposed to have
been used in pastoral ages to distinguish different flocks ; is under
that form, i.e. a three-membered cross, the actual mark directed
in Ezekiel to be placed on the foreheads of those who are to be
exempted from slaughter ;* has been used as a mark placed on
those accused of crimQhxii acquitted ; f was a celebrated emblem
of the Phoenicians, and is found on their coins ; is also seen in
the Assyrian sculptures round the necks of kings (fig. 29) ; and
was the peculiar feature in the Tyrian worship, to degrade which
Alexander ordered a multitudinous execution by crucifixion ;
while probably the most vast lithic representation of this
emblem is to be found in the British isles, as pointed out by
me in a paper already referred to as forming part of the in*
augural lecture in Sir Peter Coats's Museum at Paisley ; namely,
the great cross at Callernish (figs. 30, 30a, 306), in Lews, formed
of stones arranged in that shape. We have, then, this emblem
also as a marked religious symbol in the four great continents.
The ^^d handj moreover, is a most curious emblem of wide-
spread existence, and is still to be found alike in Central
America, Mexico, and Ireland. X

27. In the case of the assumed wanderer, who will be easily
recognized, there are two things which would be his distinct
accompaniments, viz., a mark upon the forehead to exempt him
from slaughter, and the recognition of the red hand; and we
find these two features, not as marks of disgrace, but as most
honoured emblems, in all countries where the sun and the ser-
pent have been womhipped, the tan, the mark, and the cross

t It appears to me aUo that the habit of markLng the ca^te of a penon on
the foreheacL as in India, is a i>&mnant of this custom ; as the person so
marked is at once recognized as being entitled to certain priTil^es, bnt
beyond them he is not entitled. In mv yonth, in the Madras Presidency, I
coidd identify the status of the natives by this maik of caste.

]: The red hand is £9imiliariied in our own coontir by Scott in Alic^
Brttnd^ and by Shakespeare in Lady Macbeth, the idea being that the hand
of the mnrdeier conld not be cleansed fiom Uood.

11

tl

Figs. 28. Examples of Ancient American
Mounds in the form of Crosses.

\J

Fig. 30a. Early Celtic.

Isle of Man and

Ireland.

<e (ft

t

Fig. 306. Early
Celtic. Brittany.

Fig. 30»^Callernish, Hebrides (380 feet in length).

24

being synonymous^ and the red hand exemplified in religious
fratricide^ and often also in pictorial illustration.* But there ia
yet another distinctive feature in the subject. In early times
the great divisions of man were into pastoral and nomad^ as
distinguished from urban and manufacturing races^ and the
former were an abomination f to the latter. The artificers in
brass and iron^ and the makers and users of musical instruments^
are of very early mention; and though of the same race there
are some described as those who dwelled in tents and had
cattle, yet there is a special mention of one still earlier^ who
had flocks.l There appears reason for supposing that when
this became the distinctive feature of exclusive occupation, it
was identified as such with the patriarchs, and was looked on
with contempt by the rest of mankind, and described as an
abomination. Now all the nations to which I have alluded as
being sun and serpent worshippers, were also the most noted
artificers, metallurgists, and miners, the latter either directly
or by instigation as purchasers of ores : Egyptians, Phoenicians,
Indians, Peruvians, Mexicans. The gold of Peru was so great
in quantity that ordinary utensils were made of it ; and arti-
ficial gardens, the soil of which was granulated gold, and the
plants and flowers of which were made of gold, were used as
pleasure-grounds § by the Peruvian sovereigns. The Tyrians,
Peruvians, and other nations I have referred to, excelled also
in the arts of dyeing colours. The Mexicans and mound-builders
were miners on so vast a scale, that their richest mines near
Lake Superior are, with all the wants and resources of the
modems^ only very partially worked now, although abound-
ing in wealth. The Tyrians traded, as Caesar and others
tell us, with the Cassiterides for tin, that is, some of the islands
now known as British ; while the Indian mines of gold and
precious stones, to say nothing of the evidences of immense
iron workings, are of note.

28. In conjunction with this is a remarkable statement in the

* Indeed, the Phoenicians, according to some authorities, actually had
their name from this cause, 0oia/6c, blood-red, connected with ^ovo^^ murder';
hence, ipoiviKiQ is read by some as equivalent to murderers. Sttabo refers to
this derivation, though he gives another, but Elsley gives a strong argu-
ment in its favour, showing that it would be vainly sought in the Syriac, as
it is from (pbiviKai, ancient Greek for aifia^ai, to slay or murder, and that
these people were, in common with the Carians, anciently called by the
Greeks <i>oiviKie, from their destroying the inhabitants of the coasts in their
depredations.

t Gen. xlvL 34. J Gen. iv. 4.

§ Baldwin's Andeni America, p. 250.

25

first part of the first German edition of Ritter^s Geography,^
which gives an Eastern tradition in the form of an inverted
history of the enmity between the first two brothers of man-
kind, setting forth all the circumstances in a party spirit
favourable to Cain. The tradition is current amongst the
Ishudes, a race occupying a mountain district rich in minerals,
and is to the following effect : — That the elder brother
acquired wealth by gold and silver mines, but that the
younger becoming envious, drove him away, and forced him
to take refuge in the East. . Moreover, wherever serpent^
worship was known, a serpent was in almost every case a
guardian of treasure. ^J

29. In the case of the wanderer and fugitive I have assumed, I
have taken only purely rational grounds to account for a fea-
ture at one time almost universal, even among the most widely
dispersed races of the earth. But such grounds will not carry
us through the question.

80. However applicable to Egypt's river may be the symbolical
serpent, it would not be so to many places where serpent-
worship was prevalent. Nor, on the other hand, could that
worship have originated in the simple dread of the deadly
power of the serpent in countries where serpents are not known
to exist, as in Ireland. If the old legend of St. Patrick driving
away serpents from Ireland is to be brought in argument
against me, it would but strengthen my case, for not only do
we find this same tradition attributing to St. Columba the
precise counterpart of that miracle in the island of lona, but
in each case it is clear that men addicted to serpent-worship,
and not serpents themselves, were the fugitives. I may say
that archaeological evidence exists to prove the case, as when
the serpents, otherwise called devils, were said to have been
driven away, they took refuge in Glen Columnkil, on the west
coast of Donegal, from which, however, they were finally forced.
This implies an interval; and that this desolate and re-
mote region was occupied by a strong body of the holders
of the ancient Celtic faith is clear from an accumulation of
very remarkable dolmens which are there found. The absence
of such reptiles in Ireland is remarkable, but their absence
could certainly not have originated serpent-worship through
terror, while everything artistic or religious in old Irish designs,
from the wonderful illuminations in the Book of Kells to the
old Celtic gold ornaments, represents the serpent, and indicates
therefore some very strong religious idea being always upper-
most in connection with it.

"^ Schlegel's Philosophij of History, p. 95.

26

31. As then neither the rationalistic view of nature- worship, nor
the simple dread of the destructive powers of the serpent do
more than help us to a very partial explanation of a feature
which, as we have seen, hardly ever diflfered in expression, though
at the remotest distances, we must look for some other and
more powerful influence as the originating cause. To arrive at
this it will be necessary to recapitrdate the points of agreement
at the greatest geographical distances ; viz., a common worship
of the sun and serpent, either as distinct deities or a compound
one, together with the principal symbols attending them, — fire
and the cross, the association of fratricide or human sacrifice
with this worship, and that too for propitiation, and the widely
distinct customs of the two first sections of the human family by
the desire to acquire wealth, through the production and traffic
in metals, and the opposite of exclusively pastoral life. Now in
the earliest times, when there was little or nothing to distract
man's attention, and when his ideas must necessarily have been
few, it appears to me there is only one way to account for a
common custom at the remotest geographical positions, which
is, by a common tradition. Facts that had occurred would be
known and handed down, and if not palatable to any, there
might be evidences of perversion; but in those times there
could never have been a total forgetfulness, nor, on the other
hand, a wholly original and pure invention, for there was no
experience on which to frame it."^

32. Moreover, if we should find in one and the same tradition
at least the three prominent and universal features referred to,
— fire in connection with worship, human sacrifice of blood
kindred, and the admitted need of reconciliation with an
estranged and powerful deity ; still further, if these are found
in conjunction with like symbols and occupation, and even a
corroboration, by the presence of other traditions having affinity
with that one, though at wide-spread distances, we should
certainly have strong reasons for attributing the customs to
the tradition, by considering that tradition was once universal,
and that, however remotely found, it had there been carried.

33. If in addition we should find that this tradition was retained
by the descendants of those who had, as it appears, not even
moved from their central geographical position, but who retained

* The Indian traditions, as mentioned further on, are so puerile that they
not only betray a most contemptible endeavour at invention, but also show
that they were of a much later date, when at least the utility of the sugar-
cane was understood, and wine and clarified butter in use. If nothing better
could be thought of then, by way of invention, it shows a difficulty that
would increase the farther we go back.

\. .

27

in common with it all the primitive features of the race to whom
the tradition first applies^ we have^ I think^ a still stronger
ground to go upon:.

34. Before coming. finally to this^ let us see if there are any
evidences of other traditions^ or customs indicative of traditions
which^ if this were the cause^ must have gone hand in hand with it.

85. Tree-worship, on which I cannot enlarge, appears to have
been a widespread custom, which, it must be admitted, is
strongly corroborative.

36. Some of the ceremonies of the Mosaic ritual haveso peculiar
a tendency, that a few questioners have, on superficial examina-
tion, mistaken them as indicating a species of solar or Sabian
worship. The emphatic denunciations against such worship
show that this could not have been so, and yet the question
arises, why did they assimilate ?

37. It must be borne in mind that the Israelites had all the
tendencies and failings of mankind in general, and that they
saw everywhere around them the worship of visible gods or their
symbols. The historical account shows how great the difficulty
was which Moses had to encounter in their case, and how soon
the pure worship, restored through his agency, again became
adulterated. It would have been simply impossible to have
confined these people to the worship of a pure and invisible
deity, such as their forefathers the patriarchs worshipped, with
their antecedent knowledge of Egypt^s gods, and with the
acquaintance they were yet to make with the Baal-worship
of Canaan; for which reason it is not improbable that to
satisfy the remarkable tendency of human nature for some-
thing tangible in worship, rites externally somewhat similar
were adopted, and even in some cases likeness-symbols,* as
instanced by the brazen serpent, when obedience, even to
promote their own cure, could be wrung from them in no other
way, while the only really miraculous emblem in the hands
of man that could be associated with tree- worship was to be
found in Aaron^s rod, which budded. Amongst the rites we
find some that might per se be taken for evidence of solar
worship, as by the undiscerning nations of Canaan the brazen
serpent probably was, of serpent-worship, and to which adora-
tion was finally paid by the Israelites themselves, no doubt in
conformity with surrounding customs. t

* Thus, Acts vii. 44^ the tabernacle is called the tabernacle of witness,
and is evidently referred to as in opposition to the tabernacle of Moloch in
the 43rd verse.

t A small tribe in India, claiming descent from some shipwrecked
refugees of the tribe of Beuben, cast on the coast of Bombay, and called
Beni-Israel, ha ve, it is asserted, to this day, ^^ each in his secret chamber, a

28

38. Indeed^ fire seems to have been inseparable from the worship
of Jehovah^ an appearance He himself assumed in his first com-
munication with Moses. The first acceptable sacrifice was a
burnt-ofi^ering brought with all devotion^ not^ I think^ as an
experiment but with a knowledge (by communication)* of its
acceptability ; and neither from the minds of pure worshippers,
or the opposite side, could this fact have been eradicated, as it
was indelibly impressed on all future people by its accompani-
ment ; viz., the first human sacrifice to that god in man^s breast
— self-esteem, whose attributes are jealousy and revenge. It
is probable then that fire was the^r^^ agent used in the external
rites instituted by Jehovah himself; hence the readiness with
which the secessionists would have adopted its actual worship
in lieu of the Deity, with a false clinging to the persuasion that
their rites were still acceptable to Him through this means ;
nay, in the first instance might have been sincerely and sorrow-
fully adopted from the expression, " My punishment is greater
than I can bear ; '^ " From Thy face shall I be hid,'' an
acknowledgment that the Deity who was being deserted was
benign and kind, and that that Deity could not have been the
sun, from whose light no escape was possible, and which could
by no stretch of imagination have been represented as pleading
and striving with individuals by separate acts. How indelibly
the events of the first operation of sacrifice by the sons of men
was impressed on the minds of subsequent generations all over
the globe, is seen from the amalgamation in their rites of all
THE EVENTS that formcd that^r^^ great drama, by their substi-
tuting their nearest relatives, instead of a lamb, for the burnt*
ofifering, for the purpose of appeasing an offended deity.

39. Moreover, the two ceremonies of human and brute sacrifice
carry conviction with them of their institutors ; thus not only
was a mere animal a simple offering, as a creature the life of
which was reasonably taken, but we find that it was under certain
circumstances pot even wasted, as in the peace-offerings, but
after a sufficient ceremonial, to prove its dedication, was to be
used as food by the giver and the officiater ; whereas, apart from
the homicide, the destruction of the nobler creature, especially
of the purest and most innocent, as of children, was one of
unmeaning cruelty and objectless annihilation. I purposely
abstain in a paper of this description from introducing the more

silver serpent, to which they bum incense twice a day, and throw a little
flower ^?) before it, and sing, accompanied with a small tom-tom." (J.
Wilson.)

* One object of which, it appears to me, may have been to impress on
man a custom, which, in the matter of food, was to divide him from the
brutes ; viz., that to eat raw flesh was an act of nnsanctity.

29

solemn and mystical sacrifices^ and the meaning involved in
themi but it is impossible to close one's eyes to the great fact
that even the deification of such an ancestor as I have portrayed,
and the holding his acts as sacred and worthy of imitation, could
only have led to the authorization of human sacrifice when the
victim was an enemy or rival, real or supposed; and that the
institution of the propitiatory sacrifice by parents of their own
children * is almost absolute proof of a tradition, from the very
first, of the amelioration of the condition of the human race, and
the reconciliation with an ofi^ended deity by some such process.
May we suggest on their parts a voluntary ofi^er of submission to
the author of that flaming sword — which, whatever may be the
meaning of the expression, would after a time be taken literally
— which was said to intervene between them and immortal life.
Hence those so devoted to the eods were deemed supremely
blest, as having passed that barrier. This idea wasLciblJ
portrayed by the Egyptians, who represented Paradise as sur-
rounded by streams of fire, issuing from the mouths of sacred
ursei {i.e. seraphs, fiery serpents), one of which guarded each
corner ; the fire so breathed out being intended, as Mr. W. R.
Cooper informs us, to destroy any invading or unjustified soul.

40. The fundamental question of reconciliation is not within the
scope of this paper, though it materially aids the conclusion. I will
therefore confine myself to less important but still very interest-
ing customs practised in common by the Hebrews and idolatrous
and pagan nations. v.

41. Fire was an emblem of the Deity with both ; the seven ^"
Spirits of God were also so represented, and the branched -s:^'^
candlestick was an emblem. We are told likewise of the fire that
was to be kept burning the whole night,t i* «• during the time

the sun was invisible, a specification quite distinct from that
for its perpetual burning. On the pagan side we find in all
countries, including Britain, that not only was fire to be kept per-
petually burning, hut that in some it was to be each year mira-
culously renewed : the hearth-fires were extinguished in Britain
on one particular night, only to be rekindled J with the sacred
fire given out by the priests, a custom still kept up in Jerusalem
by means of lighting tapers, and still observed amongst the
Guebres of India and Persia. §

* The seed of the woman. We lose an immense deal of force by the
•introduction of the word ^td in the Septuagint, and its equivalents in the
Vulgate, and the English translations of Eve*s expression on the birth of
Cain. . Here we must go back to the Hebrew nin> TlK tt^^K >n^Jp (*•«•) I
have gained a man the Jehovah ; proving that so deeply impressed upon
the mind of Eve was the promised reconciliation, that she concluded, imme-
diately on the birth of a son, that the agent of reconciliation had arrived.

t Lev. vi. 9. X Godfrey Higgins, p. 158. § Dr. Hyde and others.

^'

30

42. But in my investigations in Scotland I have lately dis-
coveredj in Ayrshire^ a monument which appears to combine the
most important customs I have touched on in one. Diagrams
A^ "i] represent the form of a mound with a large circular head^"^
and a serpentine ridge 400 feet long (figs. 32 and 33). It appears^
though in a different attitude to the serpent mound in Argyll-
shire^t ^^^^^ ^o bear the characteristics of a serpent emblem. At
tracted by the outline^ I excavated the mound^ and discovered
a paved platform of great interest. The hill is 100 feet high on
its western side^ is most uniformly shaped^ and on the north
and south sides measures 60 feet high ; to the east it is only
40 feet^ and here its true circular form is lost^ and a distinct
elongation^ terminated in broken ground, occurs just over a
roadway formed at no very remote date. On the other side of
this roadway similar broken ground appears, where a beauti-
fully curved serpentine embankment, 300 feet long com-
mences. It is evident that the embankment once joined the
circular mound or head, and was severed when the road was
made. The embankment forms a ridge about five feet across
on the top, and was once nearly 400 feet long ; it tapers as it
recedes from the head, and also slopes downwards towards
the end or tail, terminating almost vertically, the earth having
been retained in position by a facing of uncemented stonework,
the remains of which still preserve the shape. The ridge,
which runs sinuously from the east side of the mound
northwards, has been formed on the crest of a lofty bank,
and is at an elevation of 130 feet above a stream still
further north. The serpentine ridge did not contain any
relics, but on cutting through it, its artificial formation was
plainly shown, the materials having been brought from the
adjacent sea-shore, and being quite distinct from the original
summit, which was clearly defined. Trenches were cut in the
head or circular hill at the four cardinal points, from the sum-
mit to the base, without any result ; but on continuing these
over the plateau, so as to form a cross, a divergence had to be
made to avoid some trees, when the soil, hitherto of light colour,
suddenly changed to black. This discoloration being followed,
a paved platform was found about two feet, in some places, under
a rich vegetable soil, which covered the whole hill uniformly
(except where it had been. severed from the embankment), and
which it must have taken ages to deposit ; the trees that have
been for many years on the hillock assisting little, as they are

^The ridge and head are now severed by a modem roadway,
t For further particulars of these mounds see the author's papers in
Keports of the British Association for 1870-71-72-73, and Proceedings of
the Royal Institute of British Architects, 19th May, 1873.

Fig, 32. EleralioB of Mound, On the Clyde.

,3f^^

Fig. 33. Plan of Mound.

32

coniferse. This discovery took place at the north-east, and was
on the verge, just where the plateau joined the declivity.
Cuttings were then made at intervals of a few feet all round
the edge, in the same position, without success, till, on arriving
at the north-west, the same appearance was exhibited. In
result it was found that the platform was 80 feet long and
5 feet wide, paved with smooth flattened stones from the
shore in a true curve, forming a segment of a circle, and cover-
ing a space between and including the north-east and north-west
points of the compass (fig. 34). The platform itself, and the earth
beneath it to a considerable depth, were highly charred, large
masses of charcoal filled the interstices between the stones, and
on washing the earth obtained from the same position, it was
found to be full of portions of bone, so reduced in size as to
show that the cremation must have been most complete.

^ Taking the latitude of the mound, and the points of the compass
where the sun would rise and set on the longest day, this segment-
shaped platform, devoted apparently to sacrifice by fire, ia
jfound to fill up the remaining interval, and thereby complete

Jthe fiery circle of the sun's course, which would be deficient by
ithat space. Near the centre of this hillock was found under
the surface a much larger stone than any on the hill, and
which may have formed part of the foundation of an altar.
Independently of the time of year indicated by this fire agreeing
with that of the midsummer fires of the Druids, we have here
not only apparently an evidence of solar and serpent worship,
but also of sacrifice. In Scotland also fire in connection with
the cross was the signal for blood-shedding."^

43. Observe then, — with the Hebrews was the custom of
keeping fire burning nocturnally, from sunset to sunrise, and
this in connection with sacrifice; in the monument before
us appears the same custom on a magnificent scale, viz., for a
particular occasion the burning seems to have been so arranged
as even to fill up the arc of the sun^s disappearance from the
point of his setting to his rising again, completing, as it were,
the circle of his light and heat.

44. But let lis look for one moment at another wide-spread
class of traditions; — time will only, permit me to give one
illustration.

We find amongst the books of the ancient Americans one in

* The symbol which summoned to arms.— Scott. Since reading this paper
I have, through a suggestion by Mr. Wm. Simpson, discovered west of Bute
a vast lithic temple (hitherto unrecorded) arranged in a serpentine form,
with a cross transept, and having along its course evidences of interment ;
and on the Mendip Hills beautifully serpentine arrangements of barrows,
evidently connected with the great religious places of the Cells.

Fig. Si. Plan of Plalform, SO feet by 5 feat.

34

the Quiche language^ called the " PopoUVuh/' and in it a tra-
dition of the Creation, as corroborative to my mind of its
descent from the original history of the world, which we
read of in our Bible, as corroborative, I repeat, in short, as the
Assyrian account of the Deluge is of there being a current
international tradition of that event, and not simply a Hebrew
one. Mr. Baldwin gives the particulars of the Creation from
the " Popol-Vuh," as follows : —

"According to the *Popol-Vuh,' the world had a beginning.
There was a time when it did not exist. Only ^ Heaven '
existed, below which all space was empty, silent, unchanging
solitude. Nothing existed there, neither man, nor animal^ nor
earth, nor tree. Then appeared a vast expanse of water, on
which divine beings moved in brightness. They said ' Earth/
and instantly mountains rose above the waters like (hard*
fish), and were made. Thus was the earth created by the
Heart of Heaven" Next came the creation of animals ; but
the gods were disappointed, because the animals could neither
tell their names, nor worship the Heart of Heaven.

45. Therefore it was resolved that man should be created.
First man was made of earth ; but his flesh had no cohesion ; he
was inert, could not turn his head, and had no mind, although he
could speak; therefore he was consumed iu the water. Next
men were made of wood, and these multiplied ; but they had
neither heart nor intellect, and could not worship, and so they
withered up and disappeared in the waters. A third attempt
followed : man was made of a tree called tzite, and woman of
the pith of a reed ; but these failed to think, speak, or worship,
and were destroyed, all save a remnant, which still exists as a
race of small monkeys in forests.f

46. A fourth attempt to create the human race was successful,
but the circumstances attending this creation are veiled in
mystery. It took place before the beginning of dawn, when
neither sun nor moon had risen, and was a wonder-work of the
Heart of Heaven, Four men were created; and they could
reason, speak, and see in such a manner, as to know all things
at once. They worshipped the Creator with thanks for exist-
ence ; but the gods, dismayed and scared, breathed clouds on
their eyes to limit their vision, and cause them to be men, and

* I have used the expression " hard fish " here, as that which is nearest to
the meaning ; the simile is clearly an invention. In the original they are
described as ^^ like lobsters " ; but just as ktjtos means large fish as well as
whale, and as the Eomans used '^ Bos " for any large undescribed animal, it is
plain the lobster is in this case merely selected from its hard crust.

t Here becomes evident the invention of the restorer ; it is open to im-
mediate detection, being as childish a& that which distinguishes the Puranas.

3

o

not gods.* Afterwards, while the four men were asleep, the gods
made for them beautiful wives, and from these came all the
tribes and families of the earth.

47. Here we have the same tradition as ours, with the evident
loss by time of some of the consecutive events. It is not a
created fable, or it would abound in the marvellous, as we find
is the case in Oriental cosmogonies, while the excessive paucity
of material, as in the several oceans of salt water, sugar-cane
juice, wines, clarified butter, curds, milk, &c., described in the
Puranas, shows how difScult it was in early times to invent a
tradition. Nor could two such similar accounts originate in
those primitive days spontaneously when theses were unknown;
whereas it contains all the panels of the picture — if I may so
express it — but some of the portraits so faded, that the restorer,
not knowing how to replace them, simply kept repeating the
principal event in the blank spaces, and at each step of distance
showed a stage of less perfection than the complete one.f But
we have our six panels intact ; we have the exact description
of events before the present condition of the earth, a precise
counterpart of that in Genesis, consonant with the plural
Elohim, and the Spirit of God moving on the face of the
waters, and which, together with the brevity and power of the
expression ''they said,'* is emphatic. Our third and sixth
pictures, of the appearance of the earth, and the creation of
man, are perfect. As to the four men created, this is clearly
confusion between the creation of man and the four men re-
puted to have peopled the earth after the Deluge, thereby
giving us a combination, and so far a corroboration of the uni-
versality of more than one tradition still retained amongst us,

48. In fine, then, I can but attribute these universal customs to
a like universality of such traditions, as you will already have
recognized ; and see, in the worship of the sun, a transmission
of the very oldest traditions found in our own, i,e, the Hebrew
records.f Thus fire, the symbol of sun-worship, is represented

* " Man is become as one of us."

+ To this may be added that the Persian tradition of the creation, in their
oldest language, gives also six periods or stages of creation, and that man is
represented as the being created on the sixth day.

X While it is clear that the Hebrews were the descendants of those who
held the earliest, as well as the purest traditions and customs which they
solemnly revered and practised, it is manifest that these were transmitted
orally, and not reduced to a written formula till the time of Moses. Still, an
author of deep research asserts that Bin Washih had collected a great variety
of alphabets, and even some which he supposed to be *' antediluvian." We
know not what was lost by the destruction of the Alexandrian library, but
it is remarkable that the cuneiform and other inscriptions, which we have
now access to, deal largely with the subject of the Flood, and this style

36

as the first Bign of the offended Deity in the flaming sword, as
acceptable with the first offering, —that is, the first recorded
sacrifice, — and afterwards falsely substituted for the offering
itself. Human sacrifice, specially by fire, and by the nearest
relatives, as commemorating the first homicide and fratricide
through a quarrel, the subject of which was an offering by fire ;
and also, in '\i% propitiatory form, as appeasing the anger indicated
by the fiery sword, and illustrative of an endeavour to realize
an event which, through such means — the suffering of the seed
of the woman — should produce a reconciliation, as evidently
promised.

49. In the worship of the serpent I recognize an acknow-
ledgment of his power, and of the tradition of the obedience
rendered him by the Jirst parents of mankind. In human
sacrifices to him, there is a recognition of the great
traditionary sacrifice of felicity, in the intercourse with
Deity, made by the human race through first following his
counsels, and also of the introduction of the death of man;
as well as a desire to propitiate him for any anger he might
entertain, arising from a worship of the visible symbol of the
Deity; and in the joint worship of the sun and the serpent I
observe another record of that drama in the final act of which
the spiritual powers of good and evil were both represented as
visibly present. In the worship of a good and bad serpent-power
I recognize the confusion arising from the amalgamation of the
sun and serpent as a combined deity, the benign influence of
the sun, and the malific power of the serpent; but more parti-
cularly — and this brings us to the primal origin — from the
knowledge promised by the serpent, as the result of obeying his
counsels, the knowledge of good and evil, a title also given to
the tree eaten of; hence the prevalence of tree and serpent
worship, and the proof of the wide-spread tradition of the FalL
It is a very remarkable fact, that whereas tree and serpent
worship are generally described together, in Nineveh it is the
sun emblem, which I have before described as Asshur, that is,
the sacred symbol raised above the tree (fig. 31c) ; thus giving
us the combined emblems of good and evil with tree- worship also.
See diagram, which contains also a serpent altar and a tree altar

of writing dates back to a very remote period ; and there is no reason why
it should not have been used even before the Noachian Deluge. The recent
extraordinary revelations upon the Creation and the Fall, from the clay
tablets of Kouyunjik, as read by Dr. George Smith, may lead to a conclusion
on this subject ; and while it is reasonable to suppose that Moses was the
first compiler for the Hebrews, may prove beyond question that the traditions
so sacred to us were not new to him, but internationally acknowledged as the
true accounts of those great events, even long before his time.

Fig, 31.

Ti^u burning Inaenss to Diana. Both the

Ooddeia and one of bar emblamB, the boar's

haad, ai^NHtriog in the sacred tree above the

Fi|;. 31a. Tree Altar from Malta.

Fig. Sli.

.. Egjpt- The

in the sacred Sjcamore-tree.

Fif. 31c.
Tree-womhip, Assyria. Presence of Assbur.

Fig. 31rf.
Troe-worahip, India.

Fig. Sit. Serpent Altar from Malta.

38

from MBltK,ibid., and two serpents worshipping fruit (Pompeian),
which fruit agrees exactly with the oflfering to the Assyrian
Asshur, and with the fruit of the sacred tree embroidered on
the dresses of the kings of Nineveh. Figs. 31 to 31a.

50. The tradition of the Fall is evidently portrayed in
the Mexican narrative through the records of its principal
event, described as the ^ods, in fear of man's power, breathing
a cloud upon the eyes of men ; evidently the tradition of the
obstacle put to the power of attaining to the Tree of Life.
The words are almost identical with the Hebrew original :
*' Man is become as one of us to know good and evil" ; but even
here bearing evidence of a remarkable perversion, like the in-
verted story of Cain and Abel already mentioned ; for here it is
man that was good, and " worshipped the Creator with thanks
for existence,^' and the gods who, without provocation, breathed
clouds on his eyes to limit his vision.

51. It will be readily seen by those acquainted with the subject,
that I could have introduced many points which seem even more
nearly to approach to an explanation of some of the questions
I haye endeavoured to answer, such as Indian, Grecian, Persian,
and American traditions of a superior being wounding the
serpent's head, and the serpent either wounding or biting oflPhis
foot, as in the account of Crishna (e. g,) ; or of the cry of '^ eve "
or *^eva'' by the celebrants of the mysteries, while they held
living serpents in their hands, and others ; but, in the limits of
a single paper, I have deemed it better to break new ground,
and to confine myself to the simplest evidences that the case
admits in connection with nature- worship.

The Chairman. — I am sure the meeting must be perfectly unanimoos in
voting its thanks to Bs^J^hen^ for his interesting paper. The Honorary
Secretary has to read two communications, after which it will be open for
any present to offer remarks thereon.

The Hon. Secretary. — Two letters upon the subject before us have
been received — one from Professor C. Piazzi Smyth, who, having read a
proof copy of Dr. Phen^'s paper, " takes exception to the way in which
Mr. Phen^ introduces his subject, and also to the statement that fires ever
burned at the top of the pyramids," adding that " the sides of the Great
Pyramid were originally steep, sloping planes, and its top, a sharp-pointed
apex." The other is from the Eev. Canon Titcomb, " taking exception to the
statement that the pyramids were built to supply the place of mountains."
— I may say that General Crawford, who has lately returned from Egypt,
states that the hills in the neighbourhood are about 800 feet high. — Canon
Titcomb adds, " AVith regard to serpent-worship being one of the dangers to
which the Israelites were exposed when first coming in contact with the
Phoenician or Canaanitish race, surely there is other evidence of it than
that adduced in referring to the brazen serpent (the circumstances in regard

39

to which are explained on other grounds). The Phoenicians certainly
worshipped the serpent under the name of Ob or Aub, and it is interesting
to note the express allusion in Lev. xx. 27. * A man also or woman that

hath Ob (or Aub) shall surely be put to death.* "

Mr. J. F.Wadmore. — I hope I may be permitted to say a few words upon
the subject before us this evening, as I am a student in the same direction
as Dr. Phen6. I think we all owe our thanks to Dr. Phen6 for his
indefatigable labours. Nobody can be better aware than I am of the
great expense, both of time and money, which \a required to find out
the many facts that are necessary to build up such a theory as his. We
certainly read of an altar of stone in Scripture, and that no tool was to be
used upon it (Exod. xx. 25), and in Stonehenge we find large masses of
stone upon whifth no tool appears to have been used. There are several
places that might have been brought in and cited as examples. I think that,
looking at Avery, it was to some extent a temple, not in the mound form, it
is true, yel, not without a mound within a distance of barely one mile, and
from the rugged masses which compose the Druidical circle, one is disposed
to believe that it was a hypethral temple, much anterior to that of Stone-
henge ; it stands in an enclosure fortified with a mound and fosse, and
formed, no doubt, one of those sacred oppida alluded to by Tacitus, where
the Druidical mysteries were taught and handed down to kindred worship-
pers of the sun and serpent ; for, stretching away from the oppida both in a
S.E. and S.W. direction, are still to be seen the remains of a row of stones,
traditionally an avenue, leading to the banks of the West Kennet, on the
one side, and the village of Beckhampton on the other, between which lies
the colossal mound of Silbury, covering an area of not less than five acres
and a half of land. Sir Richard Colt-Hoare calls it The Hill of Assembly ;
whatever it was, we find it here connected with a traditional Druidical
temple and its serpentine avenue of stone. I have been led to this idea
by looking at the general conformation of such places, with their camps and
mounds and hill forts, all over the neighbourhood. There is another simi-
larity in the hill fort at Cisbury, where you get a Vandyke running up to it
in a peculiar sinuous, snake-like form. In the same way, at Marden, we
get a peculiar form of works and mounds, we get three forms of the latter,
one of which they used for tumuli, and some of these are very large indeed.
But Dr. Phen6 has illustrated all the three classes. Then there are others,
equally large, important, and interesting, and they have evidently been
used as prehistoric citadels : of course, they have lost something of their
original character, but they still retain sufficient of their form to show what
they were. There are many examples in existing castles and citadels which
bear out the idea, as at Windsor, Warwick, and Arundel, and other
places. In many of these mounds there have been found coins, flints,
pottery, and all sorts of things, which bear out the theory that the mounds
and earthworks date far back into our history ; and Mr. John Evans has
recently published a work which shows that the early civilization of Britain
was by no means inconsiderable ; it appears from him, that there was a

40

gold coinage in Britain at least 300 years before the Romans landed ; and if
they could produce gold coins, they could possibly construct other and better
forts and citadels than many of these rude mounds. That in Ayrshire is
very finished, but we have others which are much more rude. Some of the
oppida were turned into Koman camps, as was the case at Silchester and
Verulam, which were originally British citadels, afterwards occupied by the
Romans. After the time of Boadicea, when instructions were given by
Claudius that all the British forts should be occupied by Roman detach-
ments, we find British and Roman remains lying in juxtaposition. The
whole subject is too large to be treated too exclusively from one point of
view, but it is extremely interesting.

Rev. G. W. Weldon.— I have great pleasure in adding my testimony
to the value of Dr. Phend's paper (containing, as it does, the results of con-
siderable investigation, for which we ought all to feel much obliged to him).
I have often found myself following him in his travels ; wherever I
went Dr. Phen6 had been there before me ; I even found his name
entered in the visitors' book in Wisconsin, at Milwauke, in America.
There are many things mentioned by Dr. Phen^ which in themselves
are mere nothings, but when taken together, there can be no doubt
as to their connection with each other, and as to the proof they
afford of sun and serpent worship as a universal fact throughout the world.
I agree with Dr. Phen6, in the second paragraph of his paper, as to the
feeling in the human heart. There is no doubt whatever that there are
three facts with regard to man which are of universal application : first,
that man is a religious being ; secondly, that he will and must worship
something ; and thirdly, that he becomes associated more or less with the
objects of his worship. In this way you may account for the difference
which existed between the worship of the Greeks and the worship of the
Arabs, The Arabs led a wild, nomadic life ; they saw neither rivers, groves,
nor mountains, but they did see the sun, moon, and stars, and would natu-
rally worship them. In Greece they hadgroves, rivers, and mountains, and
they would naturally worship these things as objects around them, — having
no revelation, they would fall back upon nature. The Greeks not only wor^
shipped the groves, but the trees in the groves, every tree having its dryad
or hamadryad, whose life was coincident with that of the tree. As to the
serpent, we know it occupies a conspicuous place in the pages of the
Old Testament history, and the tradition has been scattered far and
wide throughout the world. There is one thing of which I am certain,
that there is a universal feeling of dread with regard to anything that
creeps in a serpent-like manner. Dr. Phen6 must himself have been
cognizant of this fact, that in the north-west of Scotland, during the
time of the famine, none of the people could be induced to eat an eel.
They were plentiful enough, and I remember asking a man to take one
home, but the reply was " Not for me.'* (Laughter.) The simple fact is,
that there is a superstition attaching to these creeping things. With regard
to the brazen serpent, we should recollect that in the human mind there has

41

iilways been a feeling that there was some sympathy between the weapon
and the wound. Sir Kenelm Digby, one of the most distinguished surgeons
of his time, and who was far in advance of his own day, used to bandage,
not the wounded limb, but the weapon that had inflicted the wound ; and
the superstition of the wounded man's mind associated his cure with the
unwinding of the bandages from the weapon. In the same way, with the
brazen serpent. What inflicted the wound ? Fiery serpents. What cured
it? The brazen serpent. There you have the sympathy between the
weapon and the wound. I do not quite agree with Dr. Phen^'s refereuce to
the flaming sword. I think that fire-worship is a lingering of a lost tradition
of the symbol of Jehovah's presence in the various parts of the history of the
Old Testament, as when Moses came down from the rock, when his face shone,
and, above aD, when the fiery tongues appeared upon the day of Pentecost.
With regard to the question raised in the case of the Africans and South
Africans, serpent-worship and devil-worship go together. The Krooman
says : *' I do not want to propitiate the Good Being, for He is always good.
But the * bad being'\is always bad, and I want to give him gifts to make him
good.'- That is an. argument which has been more or less adopted in various
parts of the world. The serpent spoken of in the Scripture is that old
serpent the devil, and you have that most remarkable illustration, to which
Dr. Phen6 referred in the case of Krishna, which bears out the third
chapter of Genesis in a most wonderful manner. In that representation
of Krishna, you have a superior being whose heel is being literally and truly
wounded by a serpent, and the being herself is inflicting a mortal wound on
the reptile. The whole subject is most interesting ; and it is important to
gather together these disjointed fragments of lost traditions, and to
bring back to our minds this great fact — that God sent man forth not
without the truth, but man himself broke up that truth into a variety of
fragments, each nation using them as it thought fit. I trust that Dr. Phen6
will enter more fully into the subject upon another occasion.

Mr. S. D. Waddy, Q.C, M.P. — I think our thanks are due to Dr.
Phen^ for his patient accumulation of facts, which is a far more valuable
contribution to our knowledge than merely setting up a theory. We have
all felt that we wanted more facts upon this subject. I do not quite agree with
all that Dr. Phen^ has said, but I go with him very far. For instance, with
regard to the serpent and sun worship ; so far from thinking them identical
or related, I think they come from two entirely different quarters, and repre-
sent entirely antagonistic ideas and principles. When man began to abandon
the worship of the true God, he began also by degrees to worship two dis-
tinct beings — a good one and a bad one. The spirit of instinctive adoration
in him led him still to worship the good Jehovah, the Supreme Being ; but,
inasmuch as mere terror in the human mind influenced it, sometimes more
powerfully even than the feeling of adoration and reverence, so, by degrees,
man got to worship that which was to him the source of all evil and sorrow.
But in either case, whether he worshipped the good or the evil spirit, he
wished to worship by the help of some symbol. The more striking the

£

42

symbol, the more easy faith became. Therefore, when a man wanted to
worship Gk)d, he looked up for that which was most like God according to
his notions. That which gare him the best and clearest idea of benefi-
cence and majesty was the smi, and this, therefore, he accordingly worshipped
as the representatire of God, not with the idea of its being taken as God,
bat solely as a symbol of His majesty, power, and beneficence. By degrees
— and this is the history of all idolatry — the symbol displaced in the mind
of the worshipper that which it was intended to symbolize, and became
itself the object of worship. The first reference we have in the Scripture to
idolatry of any kind is that passage in Job : '^ If I beheld the sun when it
shined, or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly
enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity to be
punished by the Judge, for I should have denied the God that is above."
(Job xxxL 26, et $eq,) Accepting the chronology of the best authorities
with regard to the antiquity of the Book of Job, this is the earliest reference
to idolatry of any sort, and there is no reason to believe that, at the time
that passage was written, any form of idolatry existed, other than the worship
of the heavenly bodies. And this form of idolatry, which has been generally
known as Sabianism, was in its symbolic form, as I believe was the idolatry
of the Hebrew ; for I do not believe their idolatry ever became so gross and
sensuous a thing as that of the heathen now is. Down to the latest time it was,
in (auct, the professed adoration of the symbol of Jehovah : we have a strong
instance of this in the setting up of the images in Dan ; for Micah, who had
put them up, congratulated himself that he had got a Levite for his priest,
for he said : " Now know I that the Lord (Jehovah) will do me good, seeing
I have a Levite to my priest." (Judges xvii. 13.) You have here
clear idolatry, and yet, at the same time, there is in that idolatry clear and
distinct reference to Jehovah, and to His worship alone. But having once
introduced into worship the powers of nature, by degrees they themselves
came to be worshipped as evil and good, until we come at length to that
pagan worship of the Greeks of which Mr. Weldon spoke, when a naiad
dwelt in every stream and a dryad swung on almost every bough. With
regard to devil-worship, perhaps the best illustration is that of some of the
African tribes, who worship the serpent alone. That is devil-worship, and
from the earliest times serpent-worship has been simply and purely the
worship of the Evil One. When men had worshipped God from pure
motives, as one who was wise, beneficent, and divine, then, by way of pla-
cating the other deities or powers, they tried to find an emblem of that
which was evil. And no greater triumph over our lost race could have
been desired by the devil himself than that they should have knelt down
and selected for their worship that very serpent which, in the earliest
history of our race, was connected with its fall from innocence and purity.
A symbol was wanted, — what should they get ? We can well understand
the selection of the sun as an emblem of good, but is it possible to find
anything as a proper symbol of the devil, unless you connect the serpent
with that one single instance in which the devil is known by Divine history,

43

and was remembered by vague traditions in all nations, to have been brought
into visible and actual connection with man? I thank Dr. Phen6 very
much for the collection of interesting facts which he has put before us.

Dr. Phen:^. — I am greatly obliged for the kindly way in which you
have received my paper. I have not read many works that have been
written upon my subject, for had I done so I feel I should never have dis-
covered what I have. I have taken my own course altogether ; and if we are
*o do any good, and to bring facts to light which are to be of use, I
believe it can only be done by a man working from his own original ideas.
As to what has been written by Professor Piazzi Smyth, upon the way in
which I introduce my subject, I can only say that I cannot agree with him.
In one place in my paper I have appeared to put forward a rationalistic
idea ; such ideas iare put forward very prominently sometimes, but my
object in putting forward the one I allude to was to show that the
rationalistic idea would not stand for a moment I entirely agree with
Mr. Weldon and others in the idea that serpent-worship was devil-
worship, and that view is strongly maintained in the very last page of
my paper; the term " devil-worship ** was, of course, applied to it by
Christians. The necessary limits of such a paper have confined me
a great deal, I have as far as possible endeavoured to break new
ground, besides leaving room for the expression of opinions into
which I had not space to enter. I desired to view the subject as an inherent
worldling might be supposed to view it, apart from the antecedents
which any such person would no doubt reject, but which I, of
course, am bound to assume, and having shown that that view would not
hold water, I then went forward to view it as you do ; but it was not
my purpose to make the subject a purely scriptural one. With regard to
my appearing not to speak of certain things which belong to the subject,
it must not be supposed that because I do not put them into my paper, I do
not agree with them. With regard to what wa,s stated by the Hon. Secretary,
I did not say that there were no mountains in the neighbourhood of the
pyramids, but that the people wanted mountains nearer at hand ; and in
another of my writings I have pointed out that it was an Eastern custom to
have the place of worship close at hand : " It is too much for you to go up
to Jerusalem.'' (1 Kings xii. 28i) It was the custom of the Egyptians to
carry their dead westward, and in .that direction the pyramids supply the
place of mountains. I do not know that I have any other points of criticism
to answer, except that Prof. Piazzi Smyth has referred to only one of the
forms of Egyptian pyramids ; and that, while I agree with Mr. Waddy as to
the effect of abandonment or disuse of the true worship, I have based my
argument subsequently to a catastrophe resulting from indifference or aban-
donment, and not on anything during a progress towards abandonment. I
have to acknowledge valuable information from the Rev. Canon Stephenson,
and on this and cognate subjects from the Rev. Richard Wilson, D.D., and
on Scottish matters from my old friend of college-days, " Cuthbert Bede."

The Meeting was then adjourned.

LONDON :

WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET,

LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS.

C|e Wutaxm Institute,

or

|P|ilBsop|ical Sottttji of §ml ^riiaiir,

10, ADELPHI -TERRACE, STRAND, LONDON, W.C.

OBJECTS.

THIS SOCIETY has been founded for the purpose of promoting the followinjij
Objects, which are of the highest importance both to Religion and Science,
and such aa have not been nttempted to be attained by any previously-existing
scientific Society, viz, '.-^

First— To investigate fully and impartially the moat important questions of
Philosophy and Science, but more especially those that bear npon the great
truths revealed in Holy Scripture, with the view of reconciling' any apparent
discrepancies between Christianity and Science.

Second. — To associate men of Science and authors who have already been
engaged in such investigations, and all others who may be interested in
them, in order to strengthen their eflforta by association, and by bringing
together the results of such labours, after full discussion, in the printed
Transactions of an Institution ; to give greater force and influence to proofs
and arguments which might be little known, or even disregarded, if pnt
forward merely by individuals.
' Third.^To consider the mutual bearings of the various scientific conclusions
arrived at in the several distinct branches into which Science ia now
divided, in order to get rid of contradictions and conflicting hypotheses, and
thus promote the real advancement of true Science ; and to examine and
discuss alt snpposed scientific results with reference to final causes, and the
more comprehensive and fundamental principles of Philosophy proper, based
upon faith in the existence of one Eternal God, who in His wisdom created
flU things very good.

Fourth. — To publish Papers read before the Society in furtherance of the above
objects, along with full reports of the discussions thereon, in the form of it
Journal, or as the Transactions of the Institute.

Fifth. — When subjects have been fully discussed, to wake the results known by
means of Lectures of a more popular kind, and to publish such Lectures.

Sixth. — To publish English translations of important foreign works of rcnl
scientific and philosophical value, especially those bearing upon the rcLitioii
between the Scriptures and Science ; and to co-operate with other philo-
sophical societies at home and abroad, which are now or may hereafter be
formed, in the interest of Scriptural truth and of real Science, and generally
in furtherance of the objects of this Society.

S«ventb. — To found a Library and Reading Rooms for the use of the Members
of the Institute combining the principal adv!HiU,%'Mi<A9,\;*Jw»^'^~Sa.

46 THK VICTORIA INSTITUTE.

COUNCIL AND OPPICEKS FOR 1874-76.

President— l^e Right Honourable the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G.

Vice-Presiden ts.

Philip Henry Gosse, Esq., F.R.S. Charles Brooke, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., P.R M.S., &c.

C. B. Radcliffe, Esq., M.D., &c. Rev. Robinson Thornton, D.D.

W. Forsyth, Esq., Q.C., LL.D., M.P. Rev. I'rincipal T. P. Boultbee, LL.D.

Honorary Correspondents.
Principal J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S.
Rev. Professor Main, F.R.S., V.P.R A.S. {The Radcliffe Obsei-ver).
Professor K. A. WiJRTZ, F.R.S. (Pres. of the Assoc, of France for the Advancement of Science).

Professor Joachim Barrande, Prague (and others).

Honorarii Treasurer. —William Nowell Wf^t, E-^q.

Jlon, Sec. and Editor of Journal.— C&piAm F. W. H. Petrie, F.G.S., F.R.S.L., &c.

Honorary Foreign Secretary. — Edward J. Morshead, Esq., H.M.C.S.

Council.

Rev. Canon J. H. Titcomb, M.A.

J. A. Fraser, Esq., M.D., I.G.H.

Rev. G. Henslow, M.A., F.L.S.

Rev. Charles Graham.

T. W. Masterman, Esq.

H. Cadm AN Jones, Esq., Barrister-at-Law.

Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S.

Rev. W, Arthur, D.D.

Robert Baxter, Esq. {Triistee),
Rev. A. De la Mare, M.A.
Rear- Admiral E. G. FisiibourNE, C.B.
R. N. Fowler, Esq. {Trustee).
William H. Inge, Esq., F.L.S., F.R.M.S.
Alex. M'Arthur, Esq., M.P.
Alfred V. Newton, Esq.
William M. Ord, Esq., M.D.
S. D. Waddy, Esq., Q.C., M.P.
William Vanner, Esq., F.R.M.S.
Alfrkd J. WooDHOUSE, Esq., F.R.M.S.
Rev. Principal J. H. RioG, D.D.
Rev. Prebendary C. A. Row, M.A.

C. R. Bree, Esq., M.D., F.Z.S., &c.
John Eliot Howard, Esq., F.R.S.
Rev. G. W. Weldon, M.A., B.M., F.L.S.
Rev. Principal J. Angus, M.A., D.D.
J. Bateman, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S.

MEMBERSHIP.

Forms of Application for Admission, and all information, may be had on application.

The Annual Subscription for Members is Two Giiineas, with One Guinea Entrance Fee ; *

the Annual Subscription for Associates is One Guinea, without Entrance Fee.

In lieu of Annual Subscriptions, the payment of Twenty Guineas will constitute a Life
Member, and Ten Guineas will constitute a Life Associate. The payment of a Donation of
not less than Sixty Guineas qualifies for the office of Vice-Patron, with all the privileges of
& Life Member or Life Associate.

[It is to be understood that only such as are professedly Christians are entitled to

become Members.^

*^^* All Subscriptions are due in advance on the First day of January in each year, and
should be promptly paid to the " Victoria Institute's" credit at Messrs. "Ransom,"
1, Pall Mall East, S. W., or remitted to W. X. West, Esq., at the Institute's Office. In
the latter case Cheques should be made payable to the "Victoria Institute or Order,"
and crossed "Ransom & Co." — Post-office Orders, drawn on "London (Chief Office),"
should be made payable to " W. N. West," and a-ossed in like manner.

PRIVILEGES.

Members and Associates have the right to be present and to state their opinion at all
Meetings of the Society ; but Members only are entitled to vote by ballot, in detertoining
any question at a General Meeting.

Members are entitled to introduce two Visitors at each Ordinary Meeting, to receive
a copy of tlie Journal of Transactions,');' and of all other documents or books published under
the auspices of the Society in furtherance of Object VI., and to the use of the Library,
Reading, and Writing Rooms.

Associates may introduce one Visitor at each Ordinary Meeting, and are entitled to
receive a copy of the Journal of Transactions. •\'

Members and Associates may obtain, at reduced prices, any publications issued prior to
their joining the Institute ; the Volumes of the Transactions (issued at One Guinea) may
i be so obtained, for Half-a-Guiuea each, and the Parts of the Journal for Half-a-Crown each.

I The Council and Officers are chosen from among the Members, who are alone eligible.

I The Ordinary Meetings are held at 10, Adelphi Terrace, at Eight o'clock on the evenings

■ of the First and Third Mondays of the Winter, Spring, and Summer Months. Due notice is

! given by Advertisement and by Circular.

I ThH Papers read, and the Discussions thereon, are printed in full in the Journal of

! Transactions," of which the Ninth Volume is now in course of issue.

; The Library, Reading, and Writing Rooms are open from ten till five (Saturdays till Two.)

/ • AU Members are presented with the first Volume of Transactions.

/ lasucd in quarterly Parts, or in an annual Volume, to all Members and Associates.

THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE.

47

The Society is now supported by 595 Subscribing Members; includin|ir His Grace the
Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Prelates and leading Ministers of Koligion, Professors
of EDRli>h and Foreign Universities, Literary and Scientific Men in general, and others
favourable to the Objects.

The following are the names

The Right Rev. Bishop Abraham.

G. W. Allen, Esq., M..L.A.jN.8. Wales.

William S. Allen, Esq., M.P.

The Hon. Sir T. D. Archibald.

Rev. Canon Argles, M.A., Stamford,

The Hon. William Ashley.

Rev. Prebendary E. Auriol, M.A.

The Right Hon. A. S. Ayrton.

H. T. Bagster, Esq. [larat.

The Right Rev. the Bishop of Bal-

Rev. J. Bardsley, M.A.

The Hon. C. Barter, Natal.

Rev. G. Bartlis, D.D., Ph.D., LL.D.

Rev. J. Baylee, D.D., Ilfracortihe.

Right Rev. Bishop E. H. Heckles, D.D.

F. A. Bevan, Esq.

R. C. L. Bevan, Esq.

Rev. Eugene Bersier, Paris.

Very Rev. Dean Bickersteth, D.D.

Rev. T. R. Birks, M.A., Professor of
Moral Philosophrj, Cambridge.

Rev. J. Stevenson Blackwood, D.D.,
LL.D., Hemel Hempstead.

Rev. Sir T. E. W. Blomefield, Bart.

The Ven. Archd. Boutflower, M.A.

Professor Boutflower, Agra^ E.T.

Rev. W. B. Boyce, D.D.

Rev. PREa Brooks, M.A., Grantham.

Isaac Braithwaite, Esq.

W. H. BuDGETT, Esq., Bristol.

Capt. Boughey Burgess, U.S. Iiist.

Rev. Preb. W. Cadman, D.D.

Rev. Professor Campbell, Montreal.

His Grace the Archbishop of
Canterbury.

The Very Rev. the Dean of
Canterbury.

The Very Rev. the Dean of
Carlisle.

Rev. Canon W. Carus, M.A., Winton.

The Right Hon. Stephen Cave, M.P.

Rev. Professor J.Challis, F. R. S.(Ca7?i6.)

The Master of the Charterhouse.

The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop

of Chester.
Rev. a. M. W. Christopher, M.A. {Oxf.) \
The Right Rev. Bishop Clauguton.
T. Colan, Esq.,M.D.,R.N. (Arctic Exp.)
Rev. Canon Conway, D.D. \

of some of the Members :—

TheRt. Rev. Bishop Cotterill, Edi7u

Lieut.-General Crawford, R.A.

E. H. CuRRiE, Esq.

Rev. C. Deane, D.C.L.

The Right Hon. the Earl of
Dartmouth.

Principal J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S.
McGill College, Montreal.

The Right Rev. the Lord Bishop
OF Derry.

W. W. FiTZ-WiLLiAM Dick, Esq., M.P.

Rev. a. Duff, D.D., Moderator of the
General Assembly.

The Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

The Rev. Preb. E. B. Elliott, M.A.

J. Fairfax, Esq., New South U^ales.

S. FiNLEY, Esq., Canada.

Rev. E. Garbett, M.A.

Rev. F. Garden, M.A., Sub - Dean,

Chapel Boyal.
Rev. W. B. Galloway, M.A.
A. E. Gayer, Esq., Q.C, LL.D.
Sydney Gedge, Esq.
Rev. Sir George L. Glyn, Bart.
J. N. GoREN, Esq. [Serapis.

Captain H. D. Grant, R.N., H.M.S.
A. Haldane, Esq.
R. Hardwicke, Esq., F.L.S.

The Right Hon. the Earl of
Harrowby, K.G.

Rev. J. Harvard, Birmingham.

BissET Hawkins, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.

Rev. Preb. J. A. Hessey, D.C.L.

The Rev. Canon C. A. Heurtley, D.D.
M. Professor of Dimiity, Oxford.

Rev. J. Hill, D.D.
The Ven. Archdeacon T. Hill, B.D.
Rev. Canon Ho are, Tunbridge Wells.
Rev. C. Hodge, D.D., LL.D., Professor

of Theology, Princctoxvn Univ., N.J.
Sir J. M'N. Hogg, K.C.B., M.P.
Capt. W. Horton, R.N.
J. HouLDSWORTH, Esq.
David Howard, Esq.
James Howard, Esq.
The Ven. Archd. A. Huxtable, M.A.
Joseph Ince, Esq., I.L.S., F.C.S., &c.
Rev. Prebendary Irons, D.D.